Mining group Anglo American has added 44.5p at 1591.5p after it reported a 10% rise in iron ore production in the first quarter while copper output increased by 18% year on year. But platinum output fell by 39%, hit by strikes in South Africa where it is cutting jobs and mothballing mines. Nick Mellor at Espirito Santo said:

Anglo American's share price has had a great run since the start of the year. We think the principal reasons for this are: 1) the market factoring in the margin-accretive notion of the rand weakness against the dollar staying at present levels for some time to come and 2) the expectation that platinum group metal prices will rally (Anglo American being a comparatively low risk and liquid way to gain exposure to platinum metals versus say owning largely South African-listed platinum mining pure plays).

Both these calls appear in our view to have been decent, but it is important to remember that a) both themes are transient and could unwind over the longer term and b) it remains to be seen how much further either theme has to run in the near term. Our fair value reflects this and in our view as does the median consensus price target for Anglo American (consensus' median is currently suggesting 5.5% upside from spot). Into what we expect will be a tough summer for all iron ore-geared diversified miners, we reiterate our neutral rating on this stock and fair value of 1470p.

Mining shares were also lifted by a recovery in metal prices.

AstraZeneca is also in the spotlight, up 83.5p at £41.26 as it reported results in line with expectations, down 17%, and highlighted new cancer treatments. But its shares have been puffed up recently by talk of a possible £60bn bid from Pfizer, and on this it has so far not commented.

Among the tech stocks edging higher in the wake of the Apple boom are Arm - which fell on Wednesday following its own update but has recovered 1p to 957p - and Imagination Technologies, up 15p at 198.8p. Laird, which supplies components to Apple and Samsung, has added 5p to 292.5p.

On Arm, analyst Vijay Anand at Espirito Santo said:

With licensing ahead but royalties lower, Arm's first quarter results followed the pattern seen in the third and fourth quarters. More importantly, supported by industry data points along with weaker comparisons, Arm expects a strong second half and now has increased confidence in its full-year royalty revenue growth guidance of around 19%.

With the stock range-bound for the last 15 months, a pick-up in royalty revenue growth, similar to the first half of 2012, is likely to act as a positive catalyst, in our view. While foreign exchange drives a 3%-4% reduction to our 2014 to 2016 earnings per share forecasts, our fair value of 1,250p, offering over 30% upside potential, is unchanged. Buy.

But Unilever has lost 36p to £25.98 despite better then expected first quarter sales despite a later Easter holiday, with a continuing slowdown in emerging markets.

Overall the FTSE 100 is currently up 35.23 points at 6709.97.

Among the other risers easyJet has added 33p to £17.19 as Morgan Stanley issued an overweight rating and raised its price target from £18.30 to £18.55. The bank said:

EasyJet is benefiting from clear strength in cross-border EU market. It has highlighted strong opportunities for profitable growth in countries such as UK, France, Italy and Switzerland.

Costs [are] under control....There is fruitful opportunity for cost save in engineering and maintenance with 95% of the annual spend up for retender by 2015.

We find valuation is still attractive [and the] dividend adds to attraction. We forecast a 3% yield in 2015 in a sector where we expect few carriers to deliver a payout.

Morgan Stanley is also positive on British Airways and Iberia owner International Airlines Group, up 11p at 418.3p. It said:

[The] pre-Easter sell-off was aggressive with IAG losing 15% in 10 days. This is despite no company specific newsflow or signs of changes to IAG earnings drivers.

After a first quarter of underperformance, and indeed negative year to date performance versus 20%-45% at peers, we see grounds for investor sentiment to turn positive from here into 9 May first quarter earnings. Free cashflow yield on our 2015 estimate is a healthy 16% post capital expenditure and in a year when we expect IAG to initiate a dividend payout.